At a time when the world is recovering from the largest pandemic since the beginning of the century, Member States have joined forces with the ambition that 'this must never happen again'. At the same time, we know that threats of future pandemics are inevitable. In order to be able to rapidly cooperate and respond to cross-border health threats from infectious diseases, but also from chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear hazards and accidents, a new authority was created: the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA).
The objective of the HERA is to strengthen our preparedness for health crises by ensuring the development, manufacture, supply and equitable distribution of essential medical resources. Examples are vaccines, antivirals or mouth masks. HERA will have a budget of around €1 billion per year for this. In February 2022, the Commission approved the first annual work plan, which implies that HERA will also launch several project calls to achieve its objectives.
The FPS Public Health, Safety of the Food Chain and Environment will - in close collaboration with the Communities, the National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (NIHDI), the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (FAMHP) and Sciensano - represent Belgium on the HERA Board of Directors and also facilitate the participation of Belgian candidates in these HERA project calls.
We also held a kick-off meeting on 30 March 2022 to present HERA to a Belgian audience and the opportunities it brings.
On 25 May 2022, we organised a follow-up webinar to the kick-off meeting of 30 March with a focus on HERA EU funding opportunities (EU4Health, Horizon Europe, exchange of experience) with, among others, a participation from HaDEA (Health and Digital Executive Agency). Have a look at the presentations.
If you are interested in receiving information on new project calls, please provide your contact details using this form.